CNN wonders: Did Israel strike Gaza because they celebrated the reconciliation agreement?

posted at 12:01 pm on April 25, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Well, only if one counts rockets fired into Israel as “celebration.” The IDF struck targets in Gaza this week as Hamas continued firing rockets at civilian targets in Israel, which happened to coincide with the announcement of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah. CNN’s Jim Clancy spends four minutes discussing the agreement with PLO official Hanan Ashrawi without once mentioning the years-long rocket attacks from Gaza by Hamas, or even whether the PLO will push Hamas to stop the attacks now that it’s back in the Palestinian Authority government.

However, as soon as former ambassador Dore Gold appears on the show, Clancy suddenly wants to know why Israel attacked Gaza and ended up creating civilian casualties on the ground, starting off by accusing Israel of attacking civilians deliberately because they were celebrating the agreement:

Amazingly, Clancy goes back to Ashrawi — and still doesn’t ask about Hamas rocket attacks. At the end, Clancy reiterates the idea that the Israeli strikes were aimed at celebrations of the deal rather than the rocket attacks, even though CNN has reported on twoprior rocket-attack campaigns over the last six weeks — and did so in a particularly craven manner, after having already dismissed Gold.

Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza are certainly not above scrutiny or criticism. However, one would expect a news organization to approach this fairly and hold all sides to the same scrutiny or at least to acknowledge the attacks from both sides. Clancy’s performance here is simply jaw-droppingly awful.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Twice this morning there has been befuddlement about what CNN is doing. I don’t know why that is. The once great network has become the Kardashians of cable news. A fixation on whales, missing aircraft, and a ferry disaster. And, as a network, they’ve always hated the Jews. Now they just don’t choose to hide it.

CNN like the rest of the media, including Foxnews, is immorally anti-Israel. The Jews get attacked like this day in and day out and yet the media in this country complain about attack on muslims and Christians…but rarely state the facts about the racist Jew hating that goes on in the media in this country and around the world, especially the online forums, even for major networks and papers, where the open racism against the Jews comes up any time Israel or Jews are mentioned.

However, one would expect a news organization to approach this fairly and hold all sides to the same scrutiny or at least to acknowledge the attacks from both sides. Clancy’s performance here is simply jaw-droppingly awful.

This makes the false assumption that CNN is a news organiztion, and not the correct statement that is is a propaganda arm of the left.

Twice this morning there has been befuddlement about what CNN is doing. I don’t know why that is. The once great network has become the Kardashians of cable news. A fixation on whales, missing aircraft, and a ferry disaster. And, as a network, they’ve always hated the Jews. Now they just don’t choose to hide it.

Find one post here that shows even a minimal level of “scrutiny or criticism” of Israel.

corona79 on April 25, 2014 at 12:33 PM

No need to pile on, the left has got that covered. And when they don’t, they just make stuff up. And while they’re criticizing Israel for constructing apartments in their capital city, the missiles continue to rain down from the terrorists.

No need to pile on, the left has got that covered. And when they don’t, they just make stuff up. And while they’re criticizing Israel for constructing apartments in their capital city, the missiles continue to rain down from the terroriststourists.

That’s your argument? That the words ‘tourist’ and ‘terrorist’ sound similar? I was kind of hoping the open registration would bring in lefties making better arguments. But the fundamental problem is valid arguments supporting lefty positions don’t exist.